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Material strategies for sustainable construction

Published at: 24 April 2018

The way we approach material must increasingly address environmental effects, both within and beyond an architectural project. It’s time to celebrate materials, methods and technologies that do more with less.

Though sustainability programs such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED have contributed fundamental knowledge on environmentally responsible material approaches in the AEC industry, we need more significant efforts to achieve measurable benefits in future material strategies.

In Architect Magazine, Blaine Bronwell outlines suggestions for material strategies to help architects to make a more significant contribution to building resilience.

These suggestions include adapting and reusing existing structures, building ‘carbon banks’ (buildings with a significant amount of biomass-based materials) and using materials that enable buildings to act as energy plants.